It may be October, and the band may be called City of Ghosts, but this isn't some novelty Halloween band. That said, if it ever decided to do a cover of "Monster Mash," it'd be intense.

Formed from the ashes of In Like a Lion and Hail Archer — the latter of which drew some national exposure among hard rock and punk fans and websites — City of Ghosts has conjured up a new album, "The Calm in the Current," heavy on dense guitar riffing and emo-oriented (occasionally screamed) vocals. | Oct. 16, 2013»Read Full Article

While artists making work from trash has been an art-world fashion for many years, it is rare to find an artist who is able to create a fresh aesthetic from old drink cups, soda bottle caps and popcorn containers.

Terrence Campagna has walked and hitchhiked across the Midwest, studying what's been discarded across the landscape, from fast food containers to old barns. | Oct. 16, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(1)

With Elmore Leonard having ascended to a higher jurisdiction, George Pelecanos might be our greatest active writer of tough-guy urban crime fiction. (Feel free to post your suggestion for the tough-guy writing crown as a comment.)

Alternative comedy fans will have a feast waiting for them Friday at the Pabst Theater, when Eugene Mirman, John Hodgman and Kristen Schaal — all three top names in the quirky, witty, oft-surreal and always unorthodox comedy subgenre — pair up for the Milwaukee stop of the "MirmanSchaalHodgman Sandwich To Go" stand-up tour.

Their careers have frequently overlapped. Mirman, 39, and Schaal, 35, had recurring roles on the HBO cult comedy series "Flight of the Conchords" from 2007 to 2009. They currently co-star on "Bob's Burgers," playing the roles of child siblings Louise and Gene Belcher on the Fox animated series. | Oct. 16, 2013»Read Full Article(4)

I went home for lunch one day about seven years ago and flipped on my television to pass the time. I’ve long forgotten what I had for lunch that day but not what I heard.

Richard Dreyfuss, the actor who played the dogged marine biologist in “Jaws,” spoke to journalists at the National Press Club about the necessity of teaching civics. What lit my ears on fire, though, was his sobering thesis that our culture had fundamentally changed from a word-based society to an image-driven one, not that we weren’t inundated by torrents of words. | Oct. 16, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

After graduating from Harvard in 1954, John Updike spent a year at Oxford University as a fellow at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. He tapped that English locale for the setting of "Dentistry and Doubt," the fifth story in this collected edition, published in October, 1955 by The New Yorker. | Oct. 16, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

Just in time for scary October nights, the band Tigernite will release the new single "Tarantula" during a release party tonight at the Exclusive Company, 1669 N. Farwell Ave. Downloads will be doled out and the band will play lots of other tunes while they're visiting one of Milwaukee's more beloved record stores. | Oct. 16, 2013»Read Full Blog Post